Windows 7 Drivers for Docucolor 12 xp rip

Any chance Fiery has compiled the basic drivers for a XP12 RIP for Docucolor 12. both 32 and 64 bit for Windows 7, seeing as Adobe did not release a tool for converting ppd's to the Windows 7 format for end users only manufacturers.

We still have this as a backup device to our new printers but only have XP drivers for the Doc 12.

How to convert any XP or Older PS printer drivers to Win7 32 or 64 bit when EFI won't

Originally Posted by adam1991

It's not an EFI thing. EFI does only what the manufacturer specifies and pays for.

No, the Doc 12--which came out in August 1998--will never have Win7 drivers. You were lucky to get XP drivers, frankly.

How to convert XP or older ps printer drivers to Win7 32 or 64 bit or Vista

Update - based on a post on Printowners by David, referencing back to Microsoft and my experience installing a Doc12 driver using a different EFI current Windows7 compatible driver.

You will want to use a printer driver of a printer you Don't have so references to it don't get confused with another printer you have. However you may want to keep it in the same brand family so it has a look and feel like you are used to.

Download a genuine Adobe postscript driver of any printer that will work with the desired Windows operating system you have, Windows7, Vista, 32 bit or 64 bit. Though an exe file they normally unzip to a temporary directory -After unzipping the files, look at the folder that the files unzip to for a PPD file or 2 in cases where there are more than 1 printer bundled in the driver.

Add the word -old to the PPD file for the current printer name. Copy your Docucolor 12 Fiery PPD if desiring a Fiery docucolor 12 printer driver into the directory - Copy the ppd to the ppd file name of the other ppd you renamed with old, but without the word old and delete the other ppd with old in it completely.

Now go through the regular Add Printer Wizard, choose your port,
then for the Printer, click 'Have Disk' then browse to the folder and choose the inf file - it will give you the name of the printer instead of Doc12 but you may simply Rename it to your desired name.

It gave me a warning about not being digitally signed. I just clicked
continue. I renamed from the default to DC12color.

If the printer driver you modified is another EFI printer it will have some look and feel as a efi printer but with settings limited to the Doc12 ppd. If you chose a more Generic printer it won't have the look and feel, you may not be able to save different size, weight color combinations in that case.

Today I installed to a Windows 7 32 bit and to windows 7 64 bit computer and both printed a successful test sheet they also have the Windows Free Form wording in them. I have yet to do more serious testing but it looks like its going to be better than the Xerox Universal Print driver alternative as that driver does not have FreeForm capability.

Interesting post - however you've missed out a really important point i.e - this configuration would be totally unsupported by both EFI & Xerox. So any problems you're stuck with..

An analagy might be getting "Call of Duty" made for an Atari ST ? it isn't going to happen.

As good as the DC12 was with X12, XP12, EX12 - It is a dead product - perhaps time to upgrade..?

I upgraded several years ago to a Doc 240 & Doc 250 which in fact are only just getting by on 252 drivers to allow me to print using Windows7. Our local Xerox service is often a day to 2 days getting here, the Doc 12 is a backup only

Actually Xerox is suggesting I buy their next greatest thing with a XEROX RIP as they say they can keep it up to date with drivers and fixes. Every other printer and RIP Imagesetter I own provided drivers for Windows 7 EXCEPT EFI Fiery so I am truly considering a different RIP supplier in near future (by December with purchase of next copier) entirely because basic drivers were not provided and Fiery had not suggested this work around. I was right perturbed with Microsoft as well as you can see I'm using Linux on my home computer for the same reasons. On the plus side for Fiery I will also be wanting something in a multipage Form Overlay or FreeForm2 so I still may end up with a Fiery.

a) this isn't necessarily an EFI thing; if Xerox wanted to provide Win7 drivers for the Doc12 system, Xerox would have done so. Your system is from Xerox, not EFI. EFI will make anything that Xerox wants/pays them to make.

b) if you think that any other digital copier or digital press vendor will do things any differently, you're way wrong. The model they've chosen is, they'll use your mania for having to move up in computer operating systems to drive you also buying new equipment from them just so that your entire setup works.

Your choices in the world for front ends are EFI, Creo, and the Xerox FreeFlow Print Server. Can you think of any other RIP supplier for a digital copier or digital press?

And can you think of any RIP supplier whatsoever that will provide, on their own and outside the engine vendor, any software updates that someone isn't paying for?

Maybe you could contact EFI directly and ask that they provide a Win7 driver for you. They might quote you a price. You would also want to know what a support contract for that goes for.

Whatever number EFI would hypothetically quote you, you'd be way ahead simply getting another system.

If you use digital copiers or digital presses, you are in the cycle of buying new every few years. That's just how it works. Either that, or do unsupported things to keep it going for as long as you can.

a) this isn't necessarily an EFI thing; if Xerox wanted to provide Win7 drivers for the Doc12 system, Xerox would have done so. Your system is from Xerox, not EFI. EFI will make anything that Xerox wants/pays them to make.

b) if you think that any other digital copier or digital press vendor will do things any differently, you're way wrong. The model they've chosen is, they'll use your mania for having to move up in computer operating systems to drive you also buying new equipment from them just so that your entire setup works.

Your choices in the world for front ends are EFI, Creo, and the Xerox FreeFlow Print Server. Can you think of any other RIP supplier for a digital copier or digital press?

And can you think of any RIP supplier whatsoever that will provide, on their own and outside the engine vendor, any software updates that someone isn't paying for?

Maybe you could contact EFI directly and ask that they provide a Win7 driver for you. They might quote you a price. You would also want to know what a support contract for that goes for.

Whatever number EFI would hypothetically quote you, you'd be way ahead simply getting another system.

If you use digital copiers or digital presses, you are in the cycle of buying new every few years. That's just how it works. Either that, or do unsupported things to keep it going for as long as you can.

Perhaps it best then that these alternative methods are known, it frees you from support and contractual arrangements with the printer suppliers who may have a vested interest in not providing a update so that people switch to their RIP.

I know that my Canon IR6000 with overlay has a released Windows 7 driver, also true of my old HP5000, and my RIPit speedsetter for printing plates, and which could be set up to use a Fiery Rip as a flow through device but which does not support Variable data. Xerox's rather poor solution was the Universal Printer driver - again as it does not appear to support variable data.

I don't see how we've had support with printer drivers in any case - the generic ones released that use the Generic Adobe commands with no ability to save settings work-within their limited frame set. The enhanced ones that allow one to save settings always tend to have failings some where when saving multiple settings so at some time you are printing portrait and landscape comes out even though you selected portrait Or are missing features like using Adobes Acrobats -Fit Page to margins. Does not happen on a Docucolor 240, Did not happen on the Docucolor 242 "supported driver" Solution is to send to hold queue and select fit to page in Command Workstation. I'm guessing the solution would be adding the feature within the PDF including the margin sizes.

Perhaps with the latest Adobe Print engine and non crashing hotfolders or printer queues the day of the printer driver may be behind us in any case.

What "variable data support" are you looking for that you're not finding or getting?

On the Doc12 we had FreeForm single page overlays when using the XP printer driver. When using the Xerox Universal driver this was missing - also the ability to move files to the XP from the EXP250 on our Doc240 was pretty much nonexistent.

Using the method I mentioned to create a printer driver looks like it will be giving us a useable WIN7 driver for XP with these features available. Support isn't required when it works as its supposed to out of the box.

Unfortunately the XP12 has long gone end of life and most user/owner has upgraded their machine. I have another model that is pretty close to XP12 and is driving the DC1256; SP3500 64bit Vista Driver which can be install onto Win 7. Try downloading from the link below. This link will expire in 7 days.